


Let's battle!

by Dragonfeathers



Category: Danisnotonfire - Fandom
Genre: DDR, F/M, Intense fluff, Slow Burn, Wishful Thinking, cuteness, dan is ooc because he is in fact a real person not a character, if the real Dan ever happens to see this: I'm sorry bro, video games - Freeform, wish fulfilment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 20:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12540508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonfeathers/pseuds/Dragonfeathers
Summary: Reader-chan happens to bump into Dan at the arcade. Shameless fluff which hopefully is as fun to read as it was to write :))(Disclaimer: I'm sorry. But... Dan has such a cute smile, and I relate to him so hard.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: if the real Dan ever sees this, please, don't bother reading- I'd love to play ddr with you sometime tho haha

You huffed and pulled your raincoat tighter around you against the drizzle as you wove through the crowds on Shaftesbury avenue. It was one of those grey days where it never quite rained properly, but it never quite stopped raining either, and the wind kept whipping the rain up into your face and messing up your hair. 

You'd planned on a nice day out in London, but the friend you'd met up with earlier had felt a bit ill and left you outside Charing Cross, and you'd foolishly decided to quickly nip to orbital and forbidden planet to buy some comics before you got your own train back. Well, the crowds, the traffic and the London rain made doing anything quickly pretty difficult, and you ducked under an overhang to shelter as the wind picked up again.

Ugh. Was there a shop or somewhere you could stop in for a little bit? 

Then you brightened as you remembered that the trocadero was nearby! The arcade you used to hang around in sometimes was big, the games were cheap, and sometimes the toilets were even free when the barrier was broken. You might go have a game of ddr or three to break up the walk. 

Smiling, and already feeling the slight buzz you felt when you got the chance to play on an arcade machine - so what, you're a nerd, it's more exciting when the music's louder and you can stomp as hard as you want- you wove your way through the tourists in plastic ponchos and early theatregoers with posh outfits and umbrellas to the brightly lit entrance to troc. 

You pushed back your hood and breathed a sigh of relief as you stepped out of the rain. It was cold outside, but somehow you were still sweaty and gross under your raincoat, and you unzipped it and stuffed it into your bag as you went to step on to the escalator, before you stopped with a sigh as you saw that some guy was on the ddr machine. He was going at it pretty hard, and rather than risk interacting with another human being, you slid off to the anime shop to buy some pocky. (So what if it's overpriced? You're a bit of a weeb, no one's watching, why can't you enjoy some pocky now and then!) (and besides. The arcade was pretty dead. You wouldn't have to queue to use the machine, only wait for this guy to go)

A few minutes later, you were descending the escalator, staring at the back of the guy who was still on the ddr machine. He was pretty impressive- on extreme mode but seemingly unphased by the speed of the scrolling arrows as he stomped away at the game. As you drew closer, you guessed that he was about your age? With a fairly standard short back and long on top haircut, brown hair and black t shirt and skinny jeans. A black hoodie was slung over the back bar of the machine and a black backpack was shoved in the gap between machines. You leant against the wall opposite and watched, nibbling on the banana pocky. He was good. Barely missed an arrow, and when he did, just grunting slightly and keeping in rhythm. His voice sounded kind of familiar, but then - eh.

The final song drew to a close and he leant on the back bar, panting, as the machine tallied up his score. Double A! 

"Nice!" You said, clapping as you moved forwards to claim the machine.

"Thanks." The guy said as he turned around- and it was Dan.

Daniel Howell. Danisnotonfire. The YouTuber you spent several hours a week watching and had done for several years, so much so that on some level you kind of thought of him as a personal friend. 

"Dan!" You blurted out, gaping as he wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead. 

"Yeah, that's me." He said with a grin. "Want a picture?" He said, as you said "have some pocky!" And thrust the packet at him, flustered. "I mean, do you like pocky?"

"Yeah sure." He took a stick and crunched it up as you gulped and tried to get a grip of yourself. Be cool. Be normal. He's just a guy. Who you watch. A lot. On the internet. Oh man that sounds creepy. 

"Um." 

Then the machine interrupted you. "Continue?" It asked.

"Oh, right." Dan pressed the exit button and made to get his hoodie.

"Sorry." You said, shaking your head to clear it. "I wasn't expecting to see anyone down here, let alone a famous person."

"That's alright." He said, and his dimple was even cuter in real life. 

"Can I get a hug?" You ask sheepishly.

"Come here." He said, opening his arms, and you squeezed him tightly before letting him go all to soon. 

"Can I get a picture too? Just to prove I met you?" You said, grabbing your phone. 

"Sure. Here, I've got it." He said, taking your phone and angling for a selfie with his longer arm. "nice face." He said with a chuckle as he saw the exaggerated shocked expression and double- point you pulled for the photo." 

"Well, my hair looks like a mess, so silly face all the way." 

"I feel that." He said, handing back the phone.

You seized your courage. He was going to leave if you didn't do something. Your bro. Your boy Danny fire. He was right here, now, but he wouldn't be unless you said something appropriate but cool to keep the conversation going. 

"Were you still gonna play some more?" You said, digging in your bag for your purse.

"Yeah, I wanted to finally triple A this song, but y'know-"

"Can I be player 2? I love ddr!" You flashed a v sign at him with a winning grin. 

"Alright, sure." He hopped back on the stage and you pulled out two pound coins. "I got this." 

"Oh, are you sure?" 

"Yeah, as payback for some rando joining your game." You shoved your bag next to his and scrolled through the songs. "Winner picks the next song!"

"Alright!" He cracked his knuckles. "What song ya choosin?"

"I'm feeling some naoki!" You said, selecting B4U and stepping over the arrows with a swooping feeling in your stomach. 

"Yaaas." He said, staring at the screen. "What's your name, by the way?" 

"(Your name)" you said. 

You stepped back and forth on the arrows, making sure they worked as the song started- you'd chosen medium difficulty, not wanting to fuck up next to dan, but he'd gone straight for the highest level. 

And then the song started. You stepped in synch to the music, aware of how he was right next to you at first, but then you got swept up in the game and the familiar rhythm. You started to mutter the lyrics to the song under your breath, only to blush when he heard you "stomp stomp stomp d-d-r" and laughed, but then he joined in at the next chorus and soon you were both half-singing along and stomping away, and then the song was finished. 

"Nice!" You held out your hand for a high five and he returned it. 

"Not bad, but I get to choose the next song!" 

"Fair dos. What you choosing?" You said, upping the difficulty when you saw him pick keep on movin'. "Ah, I love this tune!" You said, getting back into position. 

"Same." 

The song started. "Oh, rip, i think I was overconfident." You said as you stepped frantically. 

"C'mon, you got this." Said dan, not looking up from his own half of the screen. 

"Rip rip rip oh nooo." You kept up a commentary as you scraped your way through the verse, to the sound of the commentator's "noooo!"s. You struggled through all the way until almost the end, when you fluffed a combo and couldn't recover, flunking out as dan finished a triple a score with a triumphant whoop. 

"Aw, man." You shook your head. "I've still got a long way to go. Nice score, bro."

"Bit of a floppy ding dong there." He said.

"Noo! Don't tell me you still say that?" You said, putting the difficulty back down as he picked out another song- this time daikenkai. 

"Soz mate." 

"Ugh, half of the files in my computer are called sketchy ding dong or liney ding dong or some shit like that."

"Ha!"

"No! I emailed my dissertation in to my tutor while it was still called fucking essay ding dong!"

"Oh nooo." He laughed as he kept up, then stumbled on a combo. "Oh, shit-" 

"You got this bro." You said, confident in your easier mode to sneak a look over at his screen to see him miss another arrow. "Oh no, riperino." 

"Oh nooo!" He said, gritting his teeth and trying to step back in time.

You laughed, but then missed an arrow of the own. "Aaah, my combo!" 

"That was karma." He said. 

"Oy." 

"Now I'm just gonna distract you so you mess up again." He said, waving an arm in front of your screen with a grin. 

"What are you, a sore loser?" You said, batting his arm out of the way and missing a combo."

"Yep." He said, shoving you. 

"Bugger off!" You said, laughing, as the song came to a close. You got a c, but he had got a d. 

"Oh, man." He said, seeing the score.

"Bit of a double floppy ding dong there." 

"More like one and a half floppy ding dong." 

"Yeah, I was the half and you were the whole." 

"Oh that's fighting talk for someone who technically lost all three songs. "

"You wanna go, mate?"

"You bet I wanna go." You grabbed your purse but he pulled £2 out of his pocket. "Nah, Ive got it. It's only £2. And it wasn't really a fair fight."

"Senpai!" You said, batting your eyelashes and doing your best kawaii girl voice. 

"Now lets go." He said, picking out a song.

"Let's battle." You said, in a deep manly voice. 

\---

£4 later, you were done. 

"That's it. I've reached my limits. I need a break."

"Cmon, man," said dan, but he was flagging too. Only pure determination and deep psychological need to be good at games was keeping him going now. But you had less determination, and you were out of pocky. 

"Ugh, gimme a minute. I've been walking around all day." You slumped against the machine, and saw your phone glowing in your bag. You picked it up and saw to your dismay that the screen was full of notifications, all from your friend from the looks of things. You'd shoved their coat in your bag in a changing room earlier, but you'd given it back when they left - minus their railcard, which had fallen out of the pocket. Sure enough, your friend gazed back at you from the photo on the railcard, right underneath your phone. You sighed.

"What's up?" Dan was checking his own phone and trying to fan himself by flapping the hem of his t shirt with the other hand. 

"My friend left their railcard with me. I've got to go give it to them or they can't get the train."

"Ah man." 

"I know right?" You stood up. "Thanks for playing with me though. It was really fun."

"Me too." He stuck out his hand for a handshake. "Good game." 

You clasped his hand and shook it warmly. "Good game. Oh- and I really love your videos by the way. Keep up the awesome work." 

"Thanks." He said, smiling back at you. "That means a lot." 

"Your vids mean a lot, man." You said, shooting a finger gun at him as you started off for the escalator. "Bye." 

"See ya." He said, looking down at his phone. 

You strode up the escalator, only sneaking a little glance back at him right at the top. He looked up and waved. 

"See you." You mouthed, grinning. 

\---

You couldn't believe you'd actually met him. You couldn't stop grinning to yourself as you laid back on your bed, fussing over the exact wording of the tweet you were writing. Eventually, you decided to keep it simple, attaching the picture from earlier to a tweet that said "totally kicked @danisnotonfire's butt at ddr today #winner"

You sent it off and put your phone down. 

Later that evening, you thought your heart might burst when you saw that he had retweeted you with "oh no you didn't you lying ding dong."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I’m continuing this!

Dan flopped onto the sofa and pulled his laptop towards him, scrolling mindlessly through his twitter feed with little enthusiasm. He’d been trying to film all morning, but the bullet points he’d made to talk about just weren’t translating into a video. Every sentence he said just sounded clunky and awkward, or else too scripted and fake. Oh, well. He should take a break, maybe take care of some business emails instead for a change of pace...

He was scrolling through some of the notifications of people who had @ ‘ed him - liking some and replying to a few but there were just so many, he never had the time and it made him feel guilty. And then he felt guilty for not working on videos and tweeting about memes instead. 

His fingers halted on the trackpad when he saw one particular message. 

“@danisnotonfire come to Namco funland for an ass kicking”

It was from ddr girl. He snorted when he saw the photo of her posing as the ass kicking meme guy and typed back 

“@reader_chan I’ll let you live for now “

And pressed enter without really thinking about it, sighing as he pushed the laptop away and stood up to go get a cup of tea. 

She was kind of really cute though...

Phil was in the kitchen, listening to some music in his headphones and bouncing up and down a little as he waited for the toaster. He nodded to dan as he got the kettle, and took one earbud out to ask “video going okay?”

“No.” Dan shoved the kettle back onto the stand and leant back against the counter next to his friend. “It’s just not going right.” 

“Ah, man. It’ll get sorted in the end. Maybe you should take a break and come back to it.” He grabbed his toast and hesitated over the marmalade or peanut butter, before deciding on jam and spreading it generously. 

“Mm.” Ddr girl- (your name)- and the offer of another DDR party popped back into his head. He pushed the thought away, but then stopped to think about it again. Yeah, she was a fan, which made it a little weird, but then- she was obviously trying really hard to be cool, and it had been fun. And she was old enough to know what she was doing - early 20s, at least- so there wasn’t anything creepy about him enjoying hanging out with her. And she was very cute- her enthusiasm as she had thrown herself into the game was really nice when most people pretended not to be too into things to be cool- and her smile was nice. It was nice to get to know someone who wasn’t another YouTuber or an event manager or something- that didn’t happen too much these days, and he kind of missed it. Plus- it wouldn’t hurt to get to know her better. And who was he kidding- he fancied her too. It had been quite a long time since he’d fancied an actual person- like not someone so famous he’d never have a chance with them, or someone whose sexuality didn’t match his, or an anime character. He didn’t really know what he should do about it. He shook his head. Stop it. There’s no stakes involved at the moment- she’s just a person and you’re just a person- it couldn’t hurt to meet again. 

“Hey, Phil,” He said, pulling out his phone. 

“Y-huh?” He said through a mouthful of toast.

“What do you think about ever dating a fan?”

Phil spluttered and choked on his toast. 

“Not like a twelve year old! In their 20s!”

“I think it depends.” Said Phil, inching closer. “Who is it?”

Dan saw the matchmaker’s gleam in Phil’s eyes and grimaced. “Calm down. I just met someone cute, and they happened to watch our videos, and they want to meet again and I think they like me.”

“Ooohhhhh! Go for it! Who is it?”

“Nobody you’d know. I just met them randomly one day.”

“Is it DDR girl?”

Dan blinked. “Yeah, actually. How did you remember her?”

Phil wrapped an arm around him and pulled him about a bit in a laddish way. “I keep track of these things. I want to get my son all set up with a nice person.”

“Thanks?”

Phil squeezed him tighter, before letting go. “Wrap it before you tap it.”

“Thanks. Not sure I need that advice yet but I appreciate the thought. “ said Dan, putting down his empty mug and grabbing his keys. 

As he reached the door, Phil yelled down the stairs “Don’t be silly, wrap your willy!”

Dan yelled back “Phillip I’m going to murder you!” And slammed the door, but laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick scene from Dan’s POV, hope you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited continuation is here! Sorry, this chapter was just kind of really hard to write for some reason :0 hope you enjoy all the same :)

“@reader_chan actually Yeah why not”   
You stare blankly at the DM, not noticing the noise of the arcade around you. 

Your phone buzzed again. “@reader_chan see you in 20 if you’re still down for that ass kicking”

You’d replied to it but it still didn’t seem real! Even less real than meeting him randomly- he’d choose to hang with you? No way. He was a famous person, and you were just a scruffy nerd. 

You felt like screaming- not sure whether from excitement or panic- you’d gone to London to run an errand, and decided to go to funland after, tweeting Dan mostly as an afterthought and an excuse to use the meme, and then he’d said yes?!

You felt a warm feeling in your chest thinking about him- of course you did- he was a cute boy who liked ddr and anime and also cared about social justice and mental health awareness and DOGS- 

Calm down. Stay cool. He’s just. A cute guy. Who you like. Who’s kind of famous. But also just a guy who likes the same game as you. A human guy. Breathe. Deep breaths. Let’s play some candy crush or some shit like that to take your mind off of it.   
——

Ten minutes or so later, you were scrolling through your Instagram feed when-

“Yo!” Dan raised a hand as he strode through the arcade to where you were sitting, by the dodgem cars. 

“Hey! I can’t believe you actually came!”

He shrugged as he came to a stop in front of her. “I needed a break from work. Sorry to keep you waiting around.”

You flapped a hand, vaguely. “I wasn’t doing anything. And who’d pass up on a chance to hang with you?”

He laughed. “A lot of people, I’m sure.”

The conversation fell flat, and you scrambled for a new conversation topic. “So, how’s your ass?” 

“What?”

“Is it ready for that kicking I promised you?” You said, flashing finger guns at him. 

He groaned, but looked back and said “Nah, I think it’s gonna be fine.”

“Let’s go, bro!”

—-

You danced for a while- You’d gotten a little better, you think, but you’re still flagging after a while, so you suggested the dodgems before you got too sweaty. 

 

There were only the two of you in the tiny dodgem ring so it was a bit more of a gladiator battle- but you and Dan* were still both howling with laughter by the end as you rammed your cars together and stop-started your way around the ring.

There was a little pod containing a Star Wars shooter game- it was supposed to be for one player but you crammed yourself into the little pod after Dan and watched as he makes a passable attempt at the game. You’re not really any good at shooters but it’s still a cool game- there are screens wrapped around the inside of the pod so it’s almost like a 3D cinema- if you weren’t too busy noticing that his side was pressed against yours in the cramped space. 

He felt warm- of course he would, he’s an actual human, not just a YouTube video- but it’s still so weird to hear him swearing at the game without being bleeped out, and occasionally jamming his elbow against yours as he mashed the controls. 

“What’s your favourite kind of game?“ you asked as you extricate yourself from the pod, fanning yourself. 

“That’s a hell of a question!” He paused to think. “Um, RPGs probably. I really liked Undertale, but then horror games are so good too... how about you?”

“Rhythm games probably. Or candy crush, haha. I like games where you can just win if you just keep trying.”

“Where’s the challenge in that?” 

“Ugh, I have enough challenges right now! I wanna succeed in my downtime” you shake your head. 

“So you’re an easy mode pleb then?”

“And you’re a hard mode snob!”

You both decided you’d had enough games for now and left the arcade, you half wondering if he was going to leave- it was getting dark already, oranges and yellows tinging the greyish sky above the Thames. 

He didn’t immediately split off so you figured that he must be having fun too, as you ambled along the side of the river, chatting. 

 

“How is that even there?” You say, gesturing at the shrek experience. “It’s so mysterious.” 

“I want to go there,” he said, “but I’m kind of scared- like I’m imagining all the possibilities and once I go there it’ll probably be disappointing.”

“Maybe just leave it as a beautiful shrek dream...” you put your hand on your chin and struck a pose. 

“Yeah...”

“That and it’s like forty quid.” 

“Yeah, I’m not spending that much money on whatever it actually is.” He laughed. 

The smell of roasted chestnuts lured you in and you bought some from a man with a stall so tiny it was barely big enough to hold the stove for the chestnuts, wedged in between the steps up to a bridge and a stall selling theatre tickets. 

You and Dan shared the paper cone and ended up drifting to the wall next to the river, leaning on it and looking out down the Thames at the sunset. 

“What a view.” 

“Mmm.” He replied. 

You reached the end of the chestnuts, and reluctantly stood up straight, crumpling up the paper bag. “I should probably get going. Thanks for hanging with me.”

“Nah, it’s nice.” He stretched and yawned. “Meeting new people and just hanging out, doing not much. It feels like being a teenager again.”

“Haha, me too. Hey, wanna go down Poundland and then drink shandy in the park next time?”

“Or we could ride skateboards around and try to do sick flips in the middle of the road.”

“Yeah. See you again sometime?” 

“Sure.” He held out his arms for a hug and you squeezed him maybe a little tighter than you should have done before you parted ways. 

*since this is this fandom, I’m sure if I’ve got that wrong someone will let me know

**Author's Note:**

> There we go. I had a dream, and a free afternoon, and a crush on a YouTuber. I hope you enjoyed :)


End file.
